Athens

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English Athens, from Old French Athenes, Atenes, from Latin Athēnae pl (acc. Athēnās), from Ancient Greek Ἀθῆναι pl (Athênai), the plural form of Ἀθήνη (Athḗnē, “Athena”) (q.v.), the goddess. More at Athena.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæθənz/
• (some US cities): IPA^(key): /ˈeɪθənz/

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

Proper noun

Athens

1. The capital city of Greece.
2. (metonymically) The Greek government.
3. Several places in the United States:
   1. A city, the county seat of Limestone County, Alabama.
   2. An unincorporated community in Howard County, Arkansas.
   3. A large unincorporated community in Los Angeles County, California.
   4. A sizable city, the county seat of Clarke County, Georgia, consolidated with Clarke County as Athens-Clarke County.
   5. A city in Menard County, Illinois.
   6. An unincorporated community and hamlet in Henry Township, Fulton County, Indiana.
   7. A small unincorporated village outside of Lexington, Kentucky.
   8. A village in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana.
   9. A town in Somerset County, Maine.
   10. A village in Calhoun County, Michigan.
   11. An unincorporated community in Monroe County, Mississippi.
   12. A ghost town in Clark County, Missouri.
   13. A former mining settlement and ghost town in Nye County, Nevada.
   14. A town and village in Greene County, New York.
   15. A city, the county seat of Athens County, Ohio.
   16. A borough of Bradford County, Pennsylvania.
   17. A city, the county seat of McMinn County, Tennessee.
   18. A city, the county seat of Henderson County, Texas.
   19. A town in Windham County, Vermont.
   20. A town in Mercer County, West Virginia.
   21. A village in Marathon County, Wisconsin.
4. A township in Ontario, Canada.

Derived terms

• Athens County

Translations

capital city of Greece

• Afrikaans: Athene, Atene
• Akan: Atɛns
• Albanian: Athina (sq) f, Athinë f (indefinite)
• Arabic: أَثِينَا f (ʔaṯīnā)

  Egyptian Arabic: اتينا f (ʔatīna), اثينا f (ʔasīna)

  Hijazi Arabic: أثينا f (ʔaṯīna)

• Armenian: Աթենք (hy) (Atʻenkʻ)
• Aromanian: Athina f
• Assamese: এথেঞ্চ (etheñso)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܐܵܬܹܢܘܿܣ f (ātēnos)
• Asturian: Atenes (ast)
• Azerbaijani: Afina (az)
• Basque: Atenas (eu)
• Belarusian: Афі́ны f pl (Afíny), Атэ́ны f pl (Atény) (Taraškevica)
• Bengali: অ্যাথেন্স (êthenśo)
• Bulgarian: Ати́на f (Atína)
• Burmese: အေသင်မြို့ (esangmrui.), အေသင် (esang)
• Catalan: Atenes f
• Cherokee: ᎡᏗᏂᏱ (ediniyi)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 雅典 (ngaa⁵ din²)

  Hokkien: 雅典 (Ngá-tián / Ngée-tián)

  Mandarin: 雅典 (zh) (Yǎdiǎn)

• Chuvash: Афин (Afin)
• Corsican: Atene f, Ateni f
• Crimean Tatar: Atina
• Czech: Atény (cs) f pl, Athény (cs) f pl
• Danish: Athen
• Dutch: Athene (nl) n
• Esperanto: Ateno (eo)
• Estonian: Ateena (et)
• Farefare: Atena
• Finnish: Ateena (fi)
• French: Athènes (fr) pl

  Old French: Athenes

• Galician: Atenas (gl)
• Georgian: ათენი (ka) (ateni)
• German: Athen (de) n
• Greek: Αθήνα (el) f (Athína)

  Ancient: Ἀθῆναι f pl (Athênai)

• Hawaiian: ʻAkenai
• Hebrew: אָתוּנָה (he) f ('atúna)
• Hindi: एथेंस m (ethẽs)
• Hungarian: Athén (hu)
• Icelandic: Aþena (is) f
• Ido: Athina (io)
• Indonesian: Athena
• Interlingua: Athenas (ia)
• Irish: An Aithin f, An Ataen f, Cathair na hAithne f
• Italian: Atene (it) f
• Japanese: アテネ (ja) (Atene)
• Kazakh: Афина (Afina)
• Khmer: អាថែនស៍ (ʼaathaen)
• Korean: 아테네 (ko) (Atene)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: Atîna (ku)

• Kyrgyz: Афины (Afinı)
• Lao: ອາ​ແຕນ (ʼā tǣn), ເອເທນ (ʼē thēn), ອາແຖນ (ʼā thǣn)
• Latin: Athenae (la) f pl
• Latvian: Atēnas f pl
• Lithuanian: Atė́nai m pl
• Macedonian: Атина (mk) f (Atina)
• Malay: Athens
• Maltese: Ateni
• Middle English: Atenys
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: Афин (Afin)

• Navajo: Atʼéena, Áthenz
• Northern Thai: ᩋᩮᨵᩮᨶ᩠ᩈ᩺
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: Aten, Athen

  Nynorsk: Aten, Athen

• Occitan: Atenas
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: Аѳинꙑ f (Aθiny)

• Ottoman Turkish: آتینا (Atina)
• Pashto: آتن m (ātán), اتن m (atán)
• Persian: آتن (fa) (âten)
• Picard: Atènes f, Atène f
• Plautdietsch: Ateen n
• Polish: Ateny (pl) pl
• Portuguese: Atenas (pt) f
• Romanian: Atena (ro) f
• Russian: Афи́ны (ru) f pl (Afíny)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Ати́на f (Bosnia, Serbia), Ате́на f (Bosnia, Croatia)

  Roman: Atína f (Bosnia, Serbia), Aténa (sh) f (Bosnia, Croatia)

• Shan: ဢႃႇထိၼ်ႇ (ʼàa thìn)
• Sicilian: Ateni f, Atini f
• Slovak: Atény (sk) f pl
• Slovene: Aténe (sl) f pl
• Spanish: Atenas (es) f pl
• Swahili: Athene
• Swedish: Aten (sv), Athen (sv)
• Tagalog: Atenas (tl)
• Tajik: Афина (Afina)
• Tatar: Афина (Afina), Афиннар (Afinnar)
• Thai: เอเธนส์ (th) (ee-teen)
• Tibetan: ཨ་ཐེན (a then)
• Turkish: Atina (tr)
• Turkmen: Atina
• Ukrainian: Афі́ни (uk) f pl (Afíny), Ате́ни f pl (Atény)
• Urdu: ایتھنز m (ethanz)
• Uzbek: Afina
• Vietnamese: A-ten, Nhã Điển (vi) (雅典), Á Thiên
• Welsh: Athen (cy)
• West Flemish: Athene n
• Yakut: Атина (Atina)
• Yiddish: אַטען n (aten)
• Zazaki: (Southern Zazaki) Atêna
• Zulu: e-Athene

Etymology 2

Americanized form of Greek Αθηναίος (Athinaíos).

Proper noun

Athens (plural Athenses)

1. A surname from Greek.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Athens is the 39717^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 553 individuals. Athens is most common among White (93.85%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Athens”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 1, New York City: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 66.

Anagrams

• Nathes, Sneath, hasten, snathe, sneath, thanes

Middle English

Alternative forms

• Atenes, Atenys, Athenes

Etymology

From Old French Athenes, Atenes, from Latin Athēnae pl (acc. Athēnās), from Ancient Greek Ἀθῆναι pl (Athênai), the plural form of Ἀθήνη (Athḗnē, “Athena”), the goddess. More at Athena.

Proper noun

Athens

1. Athens (the capital city of Greece)
   • c. 1425 (a. 1420), Lydg.TB (Aug A.4) 1.1752:

     Þe grete worþi Dionisius, Whiche at Athens..Was called in scolis Aropagite [vr. the Ariapogite].

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• English: Athens